Play Ball

Playing Ball in 1977

Kids love to play.  Growing up, I would spend hours in the hills near our house with our neighbor friends creating all sorts of fictional worlds to conquer.  We made lean-to forts.  We had our own "Sherwood Forrest" in a lot next to our home.  We played soldiers constantly. Every pine cone was a grenade.  Tree branches became machine guns.  Our favorite was when we created our very own backyard Olympics complete with weight lifting, wrestling, high jump, races and more.  We made our own medals and sang the National Anthem. We played all the sports, all the time.

Today's kids still love to play. Their fictional worlds are more virtual. The violence that we hinted at In our games is laid out in graphic detail on the screens of today.  What saves our children is their interaction with other kids through athletics. There is a huge void in that regard right now.  It is not healthy to keep our children locked up too long. Their bodies need to move, their hearts need to pump fast and their lungs need to be expanded. It is well documented that our children are the least affected by the virus and are not likely to even become severely affected by COVID-19, let alone die from it.  Why must we restrict them so severely?

The answer of course is that they all have grandparents whose risk is so much higher.  Children are incredibly efficient germ spreaders.  They are not good hand washers.  They are still learning how to cough into their elbows and the little ones put everything into their mouths.  One of my patients came in a few years back coughing, hacking and with a fever.  I simply asked, "when did you get back from Kansas City?"  She was dumbfounded. How did I know that she had been to Kansas City?  I responded that she always got sick after visiting her grand kids.  We called it the "Kansas City Crud" from then on.

Our numbers here in St. Louis have looked pretty good, overall.  Our community quickly banded together and took the social distancing requirements seriously. Our  COVID-19 curve was absolutely flattened.  The number of the sickest patients in the hospital has been decreasing and society is starting to open back up.  One of the questions on people's mind is, "how and when do we let the kids back to play?"  In regards to the type of activities that I described above, I hope that families have been kicking their kids off the screen and out of the house to play outside all along.  I love seeing siblings out throwing a ball or just horsing around.  In regard to youth sports, I do feel that it can be done but precautions should be taken.  None of us really know the best way to do this. We have never been through such a pandemic before. The Washington University Orthopedics Department has released guidelines for resuming youth sports. (Click here to be linked.)  I feel that they are well thought out.  Some key take away messages are to stress the importance that all of us should stay at home if we have any concerning symptoms.  Sanitizing hands after contact is important.  Lastly, crowd control is key.  Spectators are much more likely to spread the disease than the participants. If we are smart we can let the kids loose and “play ball.”